Buckingham Palace celebrates the Royal Family’s best moments of 2016 with highlights video

December 30, 2016

What a year it has been for the Queen! From celebrating her 90th birthday through to her royal tours around the Commonwealth, Her Majesty has been one busy monarch.

On Friday (Dec. 30), Buckingham Palace released a special montage to mark the royal patron's incredible highlights from 2016.

To commemorate Queen Elizabeth's 90th milestone in April, new historical royal stamps and portraits were released, which saw the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Cambridge and Prince George join the Queen for a beautiful family photo. Buckingham Palace later unveiled three striking portraits of Her Majesty, taken by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz.

The monarch also attended the annual Trooping the Colour ceremony in style – an event she has taken part in every year of her reign, except in 1955. She was supported by the royal family, husband Prince Philip, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge as well as Prince George and Princess Charlotte.

This summer the Queen hosted a reception at Buckingham Palace to honour the Olympic and Paralympic heroes following their success in Rio. She mingled with many of the stars of the Rio 2016 Olympic games, circulating the palace's State Rooms, discussing victories and congratulating the athletes on their successes.

A few months later, the royal unveiled a brand new portrait of herself to celebrate six decades' patronage of the British Red Cross. Over the years, the Queen, who is the longest serving patron of the charity, has supported the organization by visiting projects and offices and attending and hosting events, such as a Buckingham Palace garden party to celebrate 100 years of the British Red Cross.

A photo posted by The Royal Family (@theroyalfamily) on Dec 30, 2016 at 5:33am PST

November 20 marked Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip's 69th wedding anniversary. On their golden wedding anniversary she hailed her partner, saying: "He is someone who doesn't take easily to compliments. But he has, quite simply, been my strength and stay all these years. I and his whole family, in this and many other countries, owe him a debt greater than he would ever claim or we shall ever know."

A photo posted by The Royal Family (@theroyalfamily) on Dec 17, 2016 at 12:25pm PST

The commemorative video comes shortly after social media went into overdrive after false reports of the Queen's death emerged. On Thursday evening, a spoof BBC news Twitter account sent people into a panic after it announced that she had died. @BBCNewsUKI tweeted: "BREAKING: Buckingham Palace announces the death of Queen Elizabeth II at the age of 90. Circumstances are unknown. More to follow." However, BBC reporter Rory Cellan-Jones confirmed the Queen had not died on Twitter on Friday morning, describing the reports as "bonkers". He tweeted: "Twitter appears to have gone bonkers overnight over a supposed media blackout - folks will be so disappointed come 8 a.m."

The fake news follows from the Queen's absence at the Christmas church service at Sandringham for the first time in nearly 30 years due to illness. Buckingham Palace said at the time the Queen "continues to recover from a heavy cold and will stay indoors to assist with her recovery."

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